Posted 3 years, 1 month ago around lunchtime by oso
Internet use becomes pathological when it is dissociated from in-person life. It becomes healthy when it is integrated with in-person living.
John Suler in The Psychology of Cyberspace
When I first started this blog in December of ‘03, I didn’t want to use my real name. The idea was to keep in touch with my friends from college. For four years we had been living off our parents’ paychecks, drinking 12 packs until three in the morning, and arguing fiercely over who was the most dedicated Marxist. It was a great time and I figured we could at least salvage the arguing part by keeping them going online.
But I still wasn’t sure about this whole internet thing. I wanted to be able to joke around with my friends and reminisce about our unsavory and illegal exploits of moral relativism. But I didn’t want to be unemployed ten years down the road because HR departments didn’t share our carefree worldview.
And so I went with a nickname, a psuedonym, something that was me but not quite me. But then, as I started meeting more and more people online (and then meeting them offline), taking part in more conversations, and joining more communities, I started to care about the reputation of both ‘el oso’ and ‘david sasaki’. And eventually, those two names came to refer to the same person.
The process of merging our online identity (usually just two to three years older) with our offline histories is something most of us eventually go through. HP is also Alfonso Trujillo. Sensory Overload is also … ummm, my girlfriend. cad is also Claudia. And Cindylu is also … well, she still doesn’t want me to write her full name out.
I think there’s usually a sense of relief when our online reputations and our offline reputations become integrated into a larger reputation of who we really are. I may be cognitive and philosophical online and silly and carefree offline, but it’s all me.
As most party hosts knows, it’s usually the people who just “show up” and that you don’t know who can create the biggest headaches.
John M. Grohol in Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters
What if we were never given the chance to form two different identities with two different names in the first place? What if I had to be David Sasaki from day one? How would my behavior have changed?
More and more websites and online portals are struggling with the issue of anonymity. The Sacramento Bee is the latest national paper to require commenters to use their real names. In the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen the government will soon prohibit anonymous postings on more than one hundred thousand websites registered in Xiamen. Major portal sites in South Korea have also decided to require commenters to use their real names. And in Venezuela our good friend Luis Carlos argues that anonymous postings are feeding the fire of civil conflict in his country.
At Global Voices contributing authors have always been required to use their real names. There is only one exception, but it’s an important one: authors can use a psuedonym if their contributions put their own well-being or their job security at risk. The latter is a point brought up by The Bee’s public editor, Armando Acuna:
A few said anonymity allowed those inside government institutions, such as law enforcement, the freedom to question and challenge supervisors higher up the food chain without fear of repercussions.
Anonymous blogging and commenting also allows individuals living under repressive regimes in Iran, Zimbabwe, Egypt to publish their opinions freely and to get out news that might otherwise not enter the mainstream media. Which is why Ethan wrote a technical guide to anonymous blogging.
But this brings up a larger debate about both institutional and governmental reform. Namely, can you bring about change if no one knows who you are? When you think about the major reformers in world history (Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Simon Bolivar, Kate Sheppard, Benito Juarez), it’s hard to imagine any of them having made any difference if they were anonymous advocates. They were so successful as reformers precisely because they were real people that the larger public could identify with.
The same could be said for the Sacramento government workers. If they’re fearful of repercussions that might come from challenging and questioning their supervisors, then that’s a problem with the effectiveness of our labor laws. But allowing an online commenter named moonbeam173 to publicly complain about the drinking habits of his/her boss won’t achive much more than promoting rumors, skepticism, and distrust.
I’m still not completely sure how I feel about online anonymity, but as I’ve become less anonymous myself over the years, I’ve started caring more about what I write and how I act online. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
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I first registered my site name “nathangibbs.com” as a portfolio for getting jobs out of college and making some art projects available. All that was highly edited for professional purposes. I’ve never really let loose as a blogger and have always considered what I write to be something my kids or parents could read.
When I visit my parents, my dad’s first response is now often a question about something on my site. That definitely keeps me conscious that I’m not on stage at a protest or lecturing in a liberal arts college. I’m in a room with everyone I’ve ever known and will ever meet.
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I wish I could take credit for the marriage of my online and persona, but it was actually a local message board and a horrible online experience.
I had not had a problem divulging my actual name to people I met online, there was no need for me to hide my real identity. However, as I started to write and read on a message board I started to realize how many people use an internet persona as an outlet for anger, racism and many other horrible sides of their personality. While the board did not require people to identify themselves, someone there started to ask all of us for our first names… at first I did not understand, but little by little I realized that the use of just my first name brought a new level of accountability… Logtar was John…
The hard part for me has always been that Logtar is more a part of who John is… a small part. John is the actual individual, Logtar is just a little glimpse into who I really am.
I used to not chat with anyone unless I had met them in person because of how much people can lie online and not feel accountable.
I remember two horrible experiences I had when meeting someone I thought I knew online and the individual they really are. Since then, I try to meet as many of the people I call friends right away.
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Not just in chat either, I’ve heard horror stories from others about their experience in meeting woman from Myspace in person – apparently, even pictures can be highly deceiving.
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I started blogging before it was known as “blogging,” in 2000! I still actually blog on an online journal community where I’m known as something else other then cad or Claudia. I remember for years this one online friend knowing me as my blogging name and when he finally found out my name was Claudia he was shocked!
Why would that be the case? Was I the only weirdo online who wanted to be incognito? Of course not, he was the weirdo, not me! LOL
It wasn’t until later in my life when I became more open to share my real name and that started when I signed up for flickr. More then anything I want credit for my work. I wanted people to know who I am rather then think of me as just another anonymous person on the net. I think that’s what it ends up being for most artists who use the Internet as their source of getting their art to the public.
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I gave up a while ago on keeping the last name hidden. If you search for me under first and last name, the blog comes up. Oh well. Moving from being Cindylu (which I still prefer) to Cindy Mosqueda — which came when I started writing with blogging.la — wasn’t so bad, but it has changed what I write about. However, this change also came at the same that people in “real life” such as family and school friends started finding out about my blog. It’s no longer as private as it was when I was just rambling on Diaryland, but I don’t mind the trade off.
About jobs, I’ve read some interesting things out there about academics who blog and how it may hurt them when it comes to the job (read: professor) search. I’ve also seen other academics in training, such as danah boyd, get their work out far and wide beyond journals and conferences through their websites. I’d like to do both.
I also hate the fact that there are a lot of people who hide behind anonymity online to post really horrible things. Sure, free speech is important but I generally behave and interact online with people the same as I do in “real life.”
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Good post, something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’m sort of middle of the road on this topic I think. I know some people that are shocked I would post photos of my family online, or even my full name. While I have linked myself to my online presence for a while, I’ve mostly relied on people being uninterested in digging through my junk. Though I think my attitude has been changing as I’ve been easier to find on google – my common name used to provide some protection that way.
But at the same time I’m not completely open either; I’ve edited and held back. Generally I treat my site as an open letter, rather than a diary. This means I won’t post on certain topics (religion & protests for example) to avoid drama with people I know, or potential employers. And I certainly don’t have the cojones to put myself out there emotionally.
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Chris, good point. I have posted occasionally on both religion and politics but am lucky to have an employer that doesn’t see it as a conflict of interest (very lucky, I’d say). The question is, what happens if/when I move to another job (in the 30+ years left before I can even think of retiring)? I think the loss of free speech when it comes to employers makes anonymous blogging more necessary.
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I too am in agreement with Grohol’s quote. I often get so upset while reading the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper has recently added comments section to every article and it drives me nuts to see the hate, racism come out under psuedonym’s. It’s disgusting.
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Maybe as it relates to cyberspace the issue of convergent or anonymous identities is new: However pen names and pseudonyms have existed as long as the written word.
What I have had the most difficulty with is when people have read my/a blog, and then had to integrate that information without really having a conversation with me/or the author about it. Rather, made a unilateral decision based on what they read on the blog and reacted to it…that still trips me out.
Communication that is truthful, inclusive, and respectful seems to be an ongoing dialogue in any medium
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Happened to me this year. When you suddenly become more accountable for what you start doing online, and when you begin working on outreach and getting blogging out there… it becomes important to have a name to stand behind what is getting written.
I don´t like for it to be obvious, I still write with my nickname, but then again, today I went out with some friends and people call me medea in person… I feel both characters begin to merge and the need for anonimity to subside.
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i still struggle with the idea of integrating my name with my blog name. its happened via links. i’m sure if someone wants to let their fingers do the walking they can figure it out. i’m trying to decide how i feel about it. i’m meeting a lot more people via my business and i think i’m craving a bit of anonimity. which is why i’ve considered blog suicide, or purging of old blog entries lately. a reporter that interviewed me for my business once told me she found my blog and that made me feel a bit violated.